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How do you reverse rustiness? | ||
Tags: Brushing up a language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Archival Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 4239 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 10 29 October 2012 at 5:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I now have to learn German for work but I haven't spoken it for 5 years. When I stopped studying it in 2007 my
level was probably lower advanced and I had a decent level of fluency. Recently I've tried to speak it and found that I have lost virtually all my vocabulary and my grammar is very rusty. Does anyone have any tips on how to go about recovering my former level? I have plenty of motivation and time on my hands but no idea where to start. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4468 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes  Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 10 29 October 2012 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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It all depends how much have you forgotten and how much is simply hidden because of disuse.
Was your only problem speaking? I mean - did you understand? Have you still decent level of passive knowledge? I was in this situation with several of my languages, one of them was English. This one was easy - I took part in one language course over 4 days, tested at C1 level but was unable to speak, and when I was leaving, I had the speaking ability back. I talked in simple sentences but could speak about everything. 3 weeks in Britain 2 months later took care of the rest. I am in a very different situation with my French - I have learned it much faster then English, to a slightly lower level and lost it completely. I was perhaps able to decipher French like an English-speaking natives would be - there are lot of cognates - but nothing more. Here, I had to start from the beginning. I simply picked my old textbooks and started at the first page. I can see faster progress then when I was in my teens and learned French for the first time. In the year I am working on my French, I have back perhaps 3 years of my previous learning. Parts of it were easy, like a reminder was enough to activate grammar or vocabulary, but sometimes even beginner grammar did surprise me, like I have never seen it before. You need to look at your situation and see which of the two extremes is your case. Look at online news or at books or at wikipedia in German, see if you can understand. And if yes, start writing and speaking - summarize what you have read, what did happen to you during the day (repeat the conversations in German). Don't mind starting in broken language - if you are simply rusty, it will come back quickly. Grab a grammar book (even a short online summary) and look it through, to remind yourself. Unfortunately, if you cannot understand any more, the fastest way could be to start from beginning. Edited by Majka on 29 October 2012 at 5:54pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6826 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 10 30 October 2012 at 1:41am | IP Logged | ||
This happened to me with Italian, Portuguese and, to a much lesser extent, German. The only thing I could do was start from the beginning again, although it's going faster this time. Edited by patuco on 30 October 2012 at 1:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4639 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 4 of 10 30 October 2012 at 1:47am | IP Logged | ||
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How long do you have before people will start expecting you to produce something?
And will the job entail travel to Germany or a German speaking country? If you can quickly get your hands on a Michel Thomas course(library?), it might be worth going through that and see if it sparks any memories. And you could be having a browse through Deutsche Welle online, both the general stuff and the material aimed at learners. Edited by montmorency on 30 October 2012 at 11:21am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4700 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 5 of 10 30 October 2012 at 2:03am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's another vote in support of "start again from the beginning." Though like patuco
mentioned, you should be able to learn at a much faster rate the second (or third) time around. I've tried to rekindle lost or latent languages using podcasts, movies, and fun stuff, but it never worked. Courses worked. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5202 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 6 of 10 30 October 2012 at 7:11am | IP Logged | ||
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After about 6-7 years of French study in high school/college I stopped for several
years until I went back to school and decided to study abroad in France. Suddenly I had to revive my French and get it ready for upper level courses and immersion in a French university. At first I just couldn't talk. I'd open my mouth and nothing would come out. Then I got TV5 Monde and after about a month of watching constantly the rust started to clear away. A lot started coming back to me and I was able to produce language again. By the end of that month I started an upper-division French class, had some trouble at first being able to follow a lecture and take notes at the same time but it came back to me. I found what suffered most was my mastery over irregular verbs and some of the tougher conjugations as well as some vocabulary and distinction over gender. I think the distinction Majke made over a language you've learned over a long period and one learned more quickly is accurate. If after listening and getting some exposure (try for some materials aimed at intermediate learners at first or an easy newscast/documentary program so as to not get discouraged by something too hard) you find that there are some foundations there then continue on as an intermediate learner. If it's really gone then start over (though hopefully you'll find a lot coming back to you). In either case I'd recommend Michel Thomas as well - it can smooth out your mastery of the basic structure of the language or it can give you a quick re- introduction if you need to start over. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 10 31 October 2012 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
OP, it's not really about the textbooks used but about the techniques (although some textbooks won't fit certain techniques). Have a look at this page: http://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Techniques Also, lyricstraining.com should help you rediscover the joy of learning German if you haven't yet. It might not be the most efficient thing to do if you need the language for work, but it's addictive and will help with the confidence, motivation and more specifically with the pronunciation. Also, in my experience, listening activates the words for further use in conversations while reading activates your writing skills. Do both, regardless of what you need for the job. You may want to start with easy readers and podcasts for learners. Edited by Serpent on 31 October 2012 at 3:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 10 31 October 2012 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||
Forgot another rec: lang-8.com - a place to get your texts corrected. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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